After 15 months in jail, a Jersey City man was cleared of assault charges that alleged he attacked his girlfriend and an Englewood police officer, who shot him in the leg, northjersey.com is reporting.

The not-guilty verdict is prompting Edward Smalls, 39, of Jersey City, to prep a lawsuit against the town of Englewood, the police station, the police officer that shot him and his ex-girlfriend that says he should not have spent any time in jail at all.

“I know they said I am not guilty or whatever, but what I have been
through, it hurts,” he said Friday, according to the report. “I should never have been locked up.
I should never have gotten shot.”

Smalls avoided life in prison because of the three-strike law, after the jury agreed he did not commit the crime that his ex-girlfriend alleged. Sheila Butler told the court that Smalls stalked and harassed her after they broke up.

Butler said on Dec. 12, 2009, she went to the police to complain about threatening messages that Small left for her.

A detective, Michael Hargrave, went to her home with her when they saw Smalls across the street. She alleged Smalls attempted to strangle her, and that Smalls had a razor with him that he used to attempt to attack Hargrave.

Hargrave subsequently shot him in the leg.

But Smalls said he had only visited her three time total, including that night to drop off money, and that police planted the razor.

Smalls was acquitted of offenses including aggravated assault, criminal
weapons possession, making threats and stalking. The jurors acquitted
him of all the charges except one count of harassment, a
disorderly-persons offense that carries no jail term.

The aggravated
assault charges carried a maximum of 10 years each in prison, but
Smalls, who has prior convictions, was facing a life sentence under New
Jersey’s version of the three-strikes law, northjersey.com said.